Tirodkar part of conspiracy to kill Sadiq: CBI

Ahmedabad: The CBI, probing the 2003 killing of Sadiq Jamal on Friday claimed the encounter in which the alleged LeT operative was shot dead was the result of a conspiracy in which former journalist of a Mumbai-based tabloid Ketan Tirodkar played a part.

"Encounter of Sadiq was a conspiracy and Tirodkar was part of it, as he himself has confessed it," Investigating Officer of the case Dy SP S K Rathi told the special CBI judge while seeking Tirodkar`s remand for 7 days. Tirodkar was arrested last evening for his alleged complicity in the crime.

"We have to find out from Tirodkar about who else were involved in this conspiracy and what else he knows about the involvement of Gujarat police in this," Rathi said.

Jamal, a resident of Bhavnagar, was claimed to have been killed in an encounter by Gujarat police in Ahmedabad on January 13, 2003. Police had then alleged he was a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative on a "mission" to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi and VHP leader Pravin Togadia.
The genuineness of the encounter came under a cloud after Tirodkar filed an affidavit before a Mumbai court that he was witness to Jamal`s handover to Gujarat police by `encounter specialist` Daya Nayak of Mumbai police a few days before the alleged encounter.

The High Court had ordered a CBI probe in June last year on a petition of Sabbir Jamal, Sadiq`s brother.

Tirodkar refused to hire any lawyer for his defence
and also declined to oppose CBI`s application for his remand. He requested the court not to record CBI`s claim that he is not cooperating in the investigations in its order.

"For past 8 years I am claiming that Sadiq was killed in a fake encounter by Gujarat police with the help of Mumbai cop Daya Nayak. I still stand by whatever I had said and did. So it is wrong to say that I am not cooperating," Tirodkar said.

In its remand application, CBI also cited a portion of the complaint Tirodkar had filed in the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court wherein he had admitted that he was instrumental in handing over Jamal to Gujarat police.

The Gujarat High Court had yesterday directed the CBI to conclude the probe in Sadiq Jamal case by October 2.
PTI